The present invention is directed to a thrust bearing assembly, more particular to a roller axial thrust bearing assembly.
Axial roller thrust bearing assemblies that are assembled are sometimes referred to encapsulated thrust bearings as one or both race washers include retention tabs or 360° flange curls in order to hold the race washers to the cage-roller assembly. Unfortunately, with the known encapsulated thrust bearings, the retention tabs or 360° flange curls can sometimes disassemble during shipping or when the thrust bearing assemblies are placed into feeder bowls for assembly in various other larger assemblies, such as automatic transmissions. Increasing the interference between the cage and the retention feature is not always feasible because the cages are usually assembled after the retention feature is in place, and more interference would damage the cage during assembly. Bearing disassembly is also more likely to occur when additional clearance is needed between the cage and washers, such as in a torque convertor application. One known solution to this problem to keep the cage-roller assembly encapsulated by the race flanges is to flange additional retention bands onto the race washers after assembly with the cage-roller assembly. However, this requires specialized flanging equipment, resulting in additional manufacturing time and cost.